last post for a while, kind of

hey - so, there's no internet in mohale's hoek, where i live, so after wednesday i will not be able to access the internet for three months, because i'm not allowed to leave the district for the first 3 months at site. i have another p.o. box in mohale's hoek, but i forgot to bring it with me. you can still use the maseru one, though, and stuff will get to me. if you're interested let me know and i will get the updated address to you. i might try to get to a computer one last time tomorrow. the p.o. box in mohale's hoek is for a school, so is hopefully a little safer than others, but we'll see. also, if you send me anything, maybe email me to let me know the contents so that i know if something is missing.
in other news, i had a sesotho oral exam yesterday. we all did, and we had to pass to be able to go to site, otherwise we would have more training. we all passed (i wonder if they've ever actually failed anyone) with an advanced low, which is really funny because my sesotho is not that great. oh well, i passed and i can leave, and get things started. hooray.
ann

ha thaba bosiu

so - i found out i would be living in ha thaba bosiu, near the mohale's hoek camptown, for the next 2 years. i visited the site this past week and am in maseru for a couple of days before moving out there permanently. when i got out to site monday, the first thing that happened when i opened the door was that a little kid stared at me and asked, "brandy?" brandy was the pcv there before me, and the first pcv ever at the site. i've had to explain a couple times now that i don't know brandy, that we do not live near each other in the states, etc. kids keep asking me where she is, how she is doing, etc. i'm living in a rondeval, and it is pretty much set up, with a couple of exceptions. it's a decent sized rondeval, i have room to practice karate (though the floor's a little slick). my latrine is nice and clean, too, though one of the hinges is busted so the door falls every time i open it. that's being fixed sometime in the next couple of days, though. i actually got stuck in the latrine last night. i was about to leave and heard a dog snarling outside. had to wait on the toilet and extra 5 minutes until the dog went away. hehehehe. fun times. another funny story: tuesday morning two girls came to see me. i had put some things by the door that needed to go out to my latrine, and one of the girls looked at the packages and asked what they were. as i was pondering a response, she looked up and very innocently asked, "dimpongpong?" which translates to "candy?" i couldn't help but laugh, as the bag in question was actually a ziplock bag of tampons and pantyliners and the just told her that the stuff was "for women".
i've been around the town some with my supervisor, m'e matukiso. she is very friendly, very knowledgeable, and (thankfully) very good at speaking english. she has offered to tutor me once i get to site, so she'll be teaching me sesotho. thus far i have seen the library, which is right next-door to me. it is new, as of this spring i believe, and i would love to expand upon it. i might solicit the aid of any interested parties from back home, but i'll have more info on that next post. i've also seen the preschool, and matsie, a conjoined primary and secondary school. i think i will be working at both the preschool and matsie, as an english and nutrition teacher, and at the library as well, maybe doing after school programs. there are a couple other schools in the area that i might work with as well, but i need to see them first.
i have a lot more to tell, but am running out of time, so i'll save it for next post.
ann

wish list

some people have asked about things to send me. here are some things i've thought of. i'll add to the list as i think of more. just a note: if you send me something, you might want to be a little deceptive on the customs forms. only put down boring stuff, or else the customs people here might take the box for themselves.

chocolate chips (not available here - a travesty!)
wheat thins (any flavor, i like them all)
animals crackers
graham crackers
parmesan cheese
"near east" brand boxes of food (the ones you can just add water to to make veggie burgers, humus, etc.)
green tea
chai tea
contact soln
map of the U.S.
map of N.C.
U.S./N.C. memorabilia (for kids)

thanks, guys.

ghetto tours, quthing, seqanqana, wish list, site, etc

ok, so i was going to write a couple of posts, but my internet connection is really slow, so i'm going to try to fit everything in to 1. i forgot to mention that we had a concert a couple of sundays ago, and that we taught the basotho the macarena. this was not my idea, and i'm proud to say that i had to relearn the dance myself so i could teach them. it was pretty funny, though. this week i've been learning a lot more sesotho, including useful phrases such as "seqanqana se seng le se seng sea iqhomela" which translates to "every frog for himself." i think this is actually a saying here. hehehe. sesotho also has clicks associated with every"q" making the phrase even more fun. it's kind of interesting how the culture plays into the language, too. there are three different words for "to put on clothes": roala, which is to put things on the extremities, apara, which is to put things on the upper body, and tena, which is to cloth the lower body. if someone knocks on your door and you want to tell them to wait because you are dressing, you use apara, because tena is too suggestive (the lower half of the body includes the hips and "important parts" for sex.
we also went to quthing this past week. it's in the mountains and therefore colder than mokhatoaneng. it also has a greater mix of nationalities and different cultures. everyone in that area speaks 4 languages. english is not one of them. there are also a lot of superstitions. we saw some babies wearing nothing below their waists, but they had beads on their waists to keep them from getting sick. i'm also getting used to bare baby butts, and apparently will be getting use to a lot of upper body female nudity as soon as it gets warm. the breasts aren't seen as sexual here, so i think women walk around without tops sometimes when it's warm. they also have some traditional dances that are done topless or naked. i've already seen a couple of women breastfeeding their babies, including one of the women in my family. in quthing, i got to plow a field using oxen, by hand. it was really difficult with the plows they use. i can't imagine doing an entire field (i only did one row and that was enough). apparently they can only do 10 rows a day, because they and the oxen are tired after that. we also got to talk with town councilo memebers to discuss the politics of the town, talk with a coop group and support group for hiv and orphans to see what they do, and talk with the principal of a school that is just starting a library. they got donations of a whole bunch of english books. unfortunately, most kids can barely speak and read english. maybe this will motivate the.
i found out that i will be living in a town called ha thaba bosiu for the next couple of years. it's near mohale's hoek camptown, south of maseru. i'm going to visit my site tomorrow. i have a rondeval i know, and i will be doing food insecurity and nutrition work, and working with a school and a library i think. i'm running out of time now, but i'll let you know more about the site next time i get to a computer.
am back in maseru now. did lots of shopping today for site visit. spent lots of $. fun times.
ann